AdventurerX

I am in my late 20s, earn £52,000 a year working as a Product manager in Technology in a bank in England. I get 30 days annual leave a year. I am considering moving to Atlantic Canada in a few years time with my Canadian girlfriend. Lots of positives - cheaper to buy a nice house, higher pay in her career, I've always wanted to live abroad.

However, when I'm at work here I am always really looking forward to my next holiday. Going from 6 weeks annual leave to just 2 weeks would seem like a massive quality of life downgrade. I love travelling, but with only 2 weeks off a year, surely I'd just usually use that coming to see family/friends in the UK? I'm so concerned about the lack of leave this might be a show-stopper for me. I feel like why would I willingly choose to give my quality of life a vast downgrade?

Surely I can see more of Canada going on holiday there from the UK regularly with my 30 days annual leave, as opposed to actually living there?

Secondly, would I be able to get a similar job (with similar/higher pay) in somewhere like Halifax, NS? Or would I have to be based in Toronto/Montreal/Vancouver to easily get a tech/finance job?

dbd33

Yes.

Yes, and the flight to somewhere in Canada is likely cheaper and more convenient from London than Halifax.

The banks are in Toronto.

Think of moving to Atlantic Canada in terms of moving to Cornwall or rural Wales.

Phaedru5

Firstly, dont assume you would only get 2 weeks holiday, its completely job dependant I get almost as much here as I ever did in England, it comes down to negotiating your job terms when you find a company that really wants you. Plus, and this is a big life lesson so pay attention You should really stop seeing quality of life as a 'holiday only' deal. Too many people slave away for too much of their lives and, as you say, spend the rest of the time just looking forward to the next holiday. What about the other 40-something weeks of the year! If thats the case, perhaps a change in lifestyle is needed, how about a job you really love, or do more fun things in the week. THIS is the key to living in a different place IMO. Live somewhere or do a job that enables you to do all the things you love all of the time and then you wont need to spend all your time looking forward to the next holiday, you can enjoy every week. This, again IMO, is a reason for a move, so if the quality of life is better FOR YOU, for the things you like and the things you want to do, in Eastern Canada then go for it. If you've just going to be swapping one city for another city and living the same life, then what's the point.

Tumbling_Dice

Hard question to answer because it is up to you to define what is attractive about moving, for example, to Atlantic Canada, or anywhere in Canada. Just make sure it is a really good reason.

You would need to define what you mean by quality of life... I personally find it a downgrade in so many ways and very much wish we had remained in the UK and continued to holiday here once in a while. We definitely saw more of Canada when we lived in the UK.

In very, very general terms, based on your post, I would say you would be better off staying put than moving to Halifax. IT is growing here, apparently, and there are some decent salaries available (in the $70k to $90k range) but I imagine IT for financial services is more likely to require you to be in Toronto area (may change with home working now... who knows).

Phaedru5's last few lines are worth paying attention to and negate the need for me to write anything similar. All the best with the deliberations.

Atlantic Xpat

The most Atlantic place in Atlantic Canada is Newfoundland. If that appeals then check out Verafin. Fintech company started here in St John’s that was bought out by Nasdaq last year for $2.8 Billion. They seem to be constantly recruiting. Maybe a good fit?

https://verafin.com/

Will_PA

yeah and tech stack in Canadian banks (even Toronto) is anecdotally pretty dated

unless you find a role at a fintech here (but not in Atlantic Canada)

jandro

I think it would be hard to replicate that kind of salary and holidays anywhere in Canada especially as a new arrival. I never got back to the 25 days I had in London. Enjoying beautiful scenery and fresh air on a much lower salary, much fewer holidays and little job security isn't much of a consolation imo and experience. It might be worth considering working there until you can afford to retire or semi-retire over here.

CJ101

Why do you say you'd be going from 6 weeks leave a year to only two? Do you have a job offer with that?

I worked in UK local government with 33 days of total annual paid time off (includes vacation, statutory holidays, non-statutory days off). In Canada, I get 44 days total annual paid time off (vacation, additional vacation, statutory days, non-statutory days).

Just because there's a legal minimum of about 22 days (stats+vacation) doesn't mean that's all you'll get, and most Provinces have more stats than Britain and vacation time is additional to stats, so get a lot closer than you'd expect to the 28 days minimum there, which includes stats.

dbd33

Except that only some jobs e.g. government, banks, grant the stats. Only some jobs allow people to actually take vacation. I don't think it sensible for an immigrant to plan on not working when work is available. Lots of other immigrants want that work.

christmasoompa

I never found stat holidays much use tbh. A long weekend just doesn't make any difference to my life, I've always enjoyed my jobs, but my family love to travel abroad and explore different countries, you can't do that with a 3 day weekend. 3 or 4 weeks in the summer plus a few other weeks in the year is what makes a difference for me personally, we were lucky in Canada as we still had that - my husband had been transferred so kept his UK holiday of 6 weeks plus stats. If he'd only had 2 weeks, that would have hugely affected our quality of life.

Whilst the OP can't assume that he'll only get 2 weeks a year, the same is also true the other way - it can't be assumed he'd get 6 weeks either.

BristolUK

And somewhere in between too. People do seem to do more with weekends than in the UK but it seems much the same thing - 'the cottage' for example.
With the proximity of Europe there's a lot more variation for a weekend, although you might want to tack an extra day on. All 'City breaks' are not the same and your weekend away can also be a beach sort of thing.

I don't think there's the variation of weekend or city breaks in North America that you find in Europe.

Former Lancastrian

Isn't the cost of flying out of Canada a big factor and especially if trying to do a 3 day weekend trip? Also dependent where you live in Canada is access to flights. Toronto, Montreal & Vancouver not usually a problem but Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Moncton not as much.
Do you see any prices comparable to say EasyJet, Ryanair etc within Canada? Sure the US have Southwest, JetBlue and Allegiant etc. If OP is worried about not getting enough time off for vacation then they might be better staying where they are. Throw in Covid then even more problems.

BristolUK

Yes, that might be why I mentioned the proximity of Europe as advantageous for the UK in regards to city breaks and contrasted that convenience with Canada

Jerseygirl

My sister gets extremely low fares to parts of Europe…weekend breaks too. Can’t even compare them to the cost here. I do think Canada generally, is much more expensive than the UK.

scrubbedexpat091

Stats are not a guaranteed day off at least in BC, many industries stay open for stat holidays, Christmas is about the only stat in BC where things truly shut down in large numbers but still a lot of industries even operate on Christmas.

I personally never consider stats as time off since I have rarely had a job where I got stats off, the only time I could take off was my 10 days required by law, but rarely all 10 days in one go.